Noah felt a bit hollow, after that, both physically and emotionally. He did not know what to think at all- it was nice, but it felt more as though they were taking advantage of one another. They felt relief in each other's presence and had both taken advantage of that fact in order to feel better. It was not romance, it was not relationship, it was... sex.
As Salamander had eloquently put it, 'We share a soul-deep bond and you worry about a little casual sex?'
So... yeah. He felt better- for however much better "blank" was than "agonizingly anxious".
On day five, he was paid another visit. A thunderous boom displaced a considerable amount of sand a dozen meters away from him. He shot up from the place he was sitting on in the sand... only to plop back down as he saw who it was with a tired sigh.
Salamander stared through him, but it wasn't like he could do anything right now anyway. Either she was here to kill him, or she wasn't.
"You are remarkably difficult to locate once you leave an area," Tamamo said in lieu of a greeting. After a moment, she shook her head side to side like a dog, shaking off a considerable amount of snow off of herself. "I'm a bit surprised you chose to stay nearby instead of directly heading towards some human settlement."
"Does that mean you've noticed only now me leaving?" Noah replied, a bit surprised.
Tamamo's ear twitched as she brought her fan up to cover her mouth, a look of irritation crossing her face. "I was... otherwise occupied disciplining my underling." Noah just stared at her. "Though I can see that you believe us monsters to be savages and murderers, I do not take lightly to misdeeds committed in my name. As such, I would like to apologize for what happened. I would have done so earlier after having collected my thoughts and punishing my disciple, but you vanished in the middle of the night."
"...to be honest, I didn't believe I'd managed to actually leave unseen in a village of people with senses far sharper than a human."
Tamamo idly waved herself with her fan. "You are only really noticeable when you're by yourself. Otherwise, picking up on your magical presence is a chore in and of itself, and you do not smell particularly different than any of the dozens of sailors we're housing, sweat and brine. The only particular smell you carried was stripped when your clothes were cleaned."
"...good to know, I guess," Noah murmured. "I don't really know what else to make of this, though. Reparations for my leg, so to speak, have already been made, and I don't really want the memory removed," he said after a moment. "I can appreciate the candor, but this truly feels like too little, too late."
"...I see." As he stared at Tamamo, he could see that she was displeased with the reply.
"Can I ask just what it is that you want?" Noah asked flatly with a sigh. "I don't think you have enough time to waste that you could just go to the mountains to the south and then get back here to the east just to apologize to me."
Tamamo's frown intensified. "...I guess you're not entirely wrong, but you're not right either. It is our job as Heavenly Knights to assist our Monster Lord in whatever it is that she wants us to do. As you've already demonstrated to know, both the previous and current Monster Lords are striving for peace with humankind, and four days ago, one of our own acted in defeat of that goal. And," her ear twitched again. "to see fear and disgust in the eyes of a human who stares at me is more than a little disheartening."
"I am not going to be attracted to someone who looks barely older than my little niece, hundreds of years old or not," he replied flatly.
"..." Tamamo sweatdropped. "First of all, I'm very adorable. Secondly... is this all that monsters have to say to you mean? Sex and violence?" She sniffed. "I mean, I wouldn't mind proving my experience-"
"You're not really advocating well for your point. And that is all I've been shown." He frowned. "Are you going to claim that human-monster interactions end differently? Because even the married couples I've seen are almost entirely composed of perverts spellbound by monster pussy." Luka included, he thought bitterly. The boy truly was the idiot she kept calling him, keeping Alice around despite her treating him as a walking semen dispenser. It had ended up alright, but how long had it taken for her to respect him?
"The Monster Lord has a consort?" Salamander spoke up for the first time that day, though it was more to herself. "Granberia didn't inform me of anything like that."
Realizing that his thoughts had strayed too far, he refocused back on the conversation at hand. Thankfully, Tamamo seemed to be mulling over his answer. As she finally went to reply, she sighed. "I do suppose that is fair for you to believe. Still, even if most monsters only really want good food and good sex, is that so bad? Or at least, is it worse than constantly fighting all the time like your goddess wants us to do?"
"I'm not a follower of Ilias." he instantly denied. With a bemused tilt of her head, Tamamo hummed.
"Could have fooled me. And that is no easy feat to achieve."
"And well... I don't know. I'd like to call myself pretty knowledgeable, and I can count the monsters alive I know to have a decent bone in them on the fingers of one hand."
"And humans?"
"What about humans?" Noah asked.
"How many alive humans you would consider decent do you know of?" She asked, seemingly full of genuine curiosity.
"..." he frowned. "It doesn't really matter now, does it? Righteousness is a right and a duty of the mighty. That's why I despise the fact that neither the Heavenly Knights nor the Monster Lord do any policing of their territories unless they happen to feel like it." Slowly, Noah began rubbing soothing circles into his leg.
The fact that he had avoided the question was clearly not missed by her, but Tamamo hummed. "You're an interesting man."
"Joy. I've graduated from worm to man. If I put in the work, I might eventually be considered something that is above cattle." Noah replied sarcastically.
"This is the second time you put down humans, despite me never making that insinuation," Tamamo observed. "It seems to me that you're the one with a problem with humanity. And you most definitely seem to have a problem with me."
"I dislike the fact that I was born defenseless and have to train up to a heroic standard to stand half a fighting chance against your average monster." And considering he was not a short man with blue hair... "Even for a human I don't exactly have strong g- birthright on my side." he was about to say genetics, before realizing that either Tamamo didn't know the word, and he would have to explain himself, or she did, and he would have to explain himself. "And I despise having to do so at all because despite being the highest authority in the monster world- the Monster Lord doesn't count, she's barely an adult, your laws are a joke since they're hardly enforced if the crimes happen to affect humans."
Silence followed, and he turned to see that she was giving him a discerning look. After a moment, he realized that he'd been talking at length about the topic with someone whom he was not even supposed to be on speaking terms with, venting his frustrations as though she was just some random person rather than the most powerful person in this world after Ilias. "Seriously though, what do you want?" he asked brusquely, and she tilted her head.
"Nothing, I suppose, though it is interesting to seek an outsider's perspective. It seems to me, however, that there is nothing I can do to change your mind about the non-violent coexistence of mankind and monster..." as she stood up, her tails raised into the air, and he tensed up as he braced himself for the incoming hurt. "Gyyyaaaaa..." she fully tensed up herself, bringing her arms above her head and stretching out, a yawn splitting her features. "Oh well, I suppose it's time for Alice to actually do her job, then," Her stare fixed on him again. "What's the matter? You look like you were expecting something. If you're so eager to be touched by my tails, perhaps we can get something going next time we speak." She winked at him teasingly, before her body faded into transparency.
Had- had she just faded like a PowerPoint presentation?
"...god fucking damn it." Noah bit his tongue. "What even was the point of asking me my thoughts when she was going to go "Ah well, that sucks, see you"?" he grumbled to himself. "Fucking hypocrite."
"I don't necessarily share the sentiment, but you know what I believe must be done in order to change things."
"Yeah, yeah... training." If there was anything good to have come out of this interaction, it was that the rage had superseded the apathy that had struck him the past few days. He set out to train with Salamander, honing both his healing capabilities and the mastery he had over the power she gave him.
...what that meant, in practice, was that he would use Salamander's power, which in turn would set him on fire, and then he'd heal the wounds.
"Why do your powers set me on fire anyways?" he asked with a grimace, realizing that even if his clothes were fire-retardant, the only piece of clothing he owned that was fire-proof was the cloak. Clearly, it wasn't affecting him as much as really being set on fire did, otherwise, it would be pure agony rather than the dull, workout-like ache he felt, but it still ended up burning objects he came in contact with over an extended period of time... which meant that he had to train in the nude for all to appreciate. Salamander most definitely seemed to.
"It's not my powers... not directly anyway. This is simply a manifestation of your burning spirit-"
"You are a burning spirit." Noah unashamedly replied and got himself smacked on the back of the head for it. His focus on the healing magic temporarily slipped, but after a moment, he managed to wrestle it back under control. While he wasn't doing anything else, he didn't need chanting to keep the healing going, and Salamander's power was more than enough to keep him alive and the spell going. In theory, this could lead to a limitless power loop that only met its limit depending on Salamander's will to keep feeding him power... but if she had any complaints, she had not voiced them for the past few hours.
"-that rages inside you being unshackled. I'm just the flame that lights it up." she continued without missing a beat. "Were you better at using my power, the flames would not harm you at all, but there's still a fundamental divide between us that has your body reject my power."
"Why are my spells so weak, though? Healing seems to work alright, but the other day I wasn't even able to put lasting harm on a group of humans..." he complained. The fire spirit hummed.
"There is a fundamental difference between the amount of magic you have available, especially when channeling my power, and the amount that you can put out at any given time. The Mega spells you've been handling recently are just you putting out more of it with the same amount of efficiency. Technique is worthless without training. Only training your body can get you to the point where you're actually doing things with your technique."
"Then why have you been teaching me these things instead of having me train?" he replied incredulously.
"Because a baseline needs to be established before I can train you in anything." she sighed. "Training your body poorly can be just as detrimental, and you're full of bad habits I've been beating out of you over the past weeks."
...weeks, huh? He'd already spent that much with Salamander.
"Now get back to it, pretty boy. You've let my power slip again. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be able to yawn in boredom at a dragon's breath." With a firm slap and appreciative squeeze of his ass, she chuckled as he yelped.
On day six, the crew returned.
The angel yawned. She was left considerably tired by the unsealing process… and yet, she couldn't sleep. Not after having slept for who knows how long- it was her sister's idea to do this whole thing anyway.
And even after being unsealed, she was being pushed back! But she could recognize this type of electromagnetic barrier anywhere. If Promestein believed that she shouldn't leave whatever this chamber was… well, Hecatolomea had been sealed for a few thousand years. What was a few more days or months to her?
Especially since she had something much more interesting to do. Ever since the human had tried to open her book, she'd felt his foreign and interesting influence. It was light and dark, but somehow, held in balance! And watching him do things, from the bond that they'd formed when he broke her seal, only proved her right- somehow, the human would seamlessly transition dark mana into clerical techniques, or even when he foolishly tried to convert fire energy into an ice spell to attack the fire spirit and somehow didn't get burnt to cinders in the attempt!
And the emotion. Oh, the raw depth of yearning that the human felt. She'd always known humans to hold potential, and this one was fulfilling all of her hopes. The way his mind absorbed information like a sponge, the way he fought for justice, his usage of magic and inventiveness to overcome challenges… oh, she'd known he'd pissed off Promestein- she'd gotten so much bigger! Oh, Heca was going to give her a piece of her mind. Promestein was supposed to have unsealed her thousands of years ago, and now she was way taller than she had been while Heca remained a shortstack!
"Still. How much of a sleepyhead can you be? Sleeping inside your dream…" she tentatively poked the back of the head of the human. Conked out on the white cloud-top of the dreamscape. "I guess you had a pretty tiring day. But I don't think I'll be able to talk to you soon if you don't wake up now…" she kept poking at Noah. "You exhausted your barrier and I was able to slip in, but even now I feel like you're slipping away."
Nothing. No signs of life besides slow, steady breathing.
With a sigh, she began running her hands through the human's blonde hair, massaging his head. "Don't worry, darling, I've got you… you're going to grow into a beautiful magus under my guidance that'll make even the greatest of witches tremble."
With that, she kissed his forehead. He was already unconsciously channeling her powers ever since she'd slipped past his defenses, but one might as well make it official. Ideally, this would be a monumental ceremony with lots of fanfare and everything, but she's already gotten in trouble trying to make this happen publicly once! No, if she wanted to bestow the gift of magical knowledge to humanity, it began with this.
Two weeks later...
The day after Alma Elma attacked their ship, Luka and Alice arrived at Port Natalia, a port city southwest of the Sentora continent known for its deep traditions. He'd finally made it on Sentora…
Stepping foot on land filled him with energy and determination.
"Hmmm… unlike Iliasport, this place is quite lively," Alice noted.
"This is the main port for the Sentora continent, so even though they can't trade with the Ilias continent, it doesn't seem to have changed much," Luka replied.
As he scanned the city, vibrant with life as travelers went to and fro, including…
"Ah?!" Luka stepped back, startled. A mermaid behind a stall counter?!
"Would you like to buy some mermaid-made grilled starfish?" the mermaid asked them. As Luka's mind washed over the information and saw more mermaids walking about the city as naturally as anyone else did, he heard a bit of a commotion.
"And don't you dare set foot on my ship ever again, ye landlubber, unless you intend to pay upfront! Next time you stow away on my ship I'll toss you to the Scyllas!"
A thud, and a sound of wood crashing, as several people turned. A man, lightly armored and dressed in a heroic manner had just been kicked- quite literally- off of a ship and onto the port, breaking apart a barrel.
"Ah- one second, miss!" Luka hurried to the man's side, helping him up. "Are you alright, sir?"
"Could've done without the bruise on my spine, but… ow… yes." the older man replied, his wide-brimmed hat shadowing his eyes. Upon closer inspection, Luka could see the wear and tear his clothes sported, and a beautiful golden sword at his side. As he stood up, Luka noticed that he was far taller than himself.
"Are you a Hero?" Luka asked, having never met a proper one.
"What do you think, Luka? This man was caught stowing away on a ship. You're looking at a criminal." Alice butted in, sidling up to stare at the man. He gave her a side eye, before returning his gaze to Luka.
"Of a sort. It's a long story." The man replied. "Still, thank you for the help. I- oh fuck, shit, nonono-" he began murmuring, looking in one direction to himself before sprinting away.
"That was weird." Alice bluntly stated.
"A bit…" Luka replied, but his eyes trailed after the man.
"Excuse me, traveler-" another mermaid approaches Luka, but the moment is interrupted as suddenly, an explosion shakes the entire plaza coming from the direction the man is running towards. A building had completely collapsed.
Had he somehow seen it coming?
"What the- what happened?!"
"That building…" the mermaid that approached him muttered before her eyes widened. "Oh no! The mermaid school!" As Luka looks over, wondering if he can help, he can see all of the mermaids head towards the school. Did they have children who went here…? What a terrible event...
Suddenly, though, his nose picks up on a pungent, acrid scent. Gunpowder. That was not an accident- someone planted a bomb here!
Too stunned at the sight of several soldiers and mermaids pulling people out of the rubble, both Luka and Alice can only watch. A mother mermaid pulls out her daughter, who is complaining about her burnt tail, but thankfully, it doesn't appear that anyone died. Monsters truly were incredibly sturdy… Luka can only sigh in relief. His relief is short-lived as he sees a familiar face in the crowd with black hair and a hanging arm.
"You!" Luka shouts, but the man is already slipping by and Luka loses sight of him. Lazarus… he definitely was the one. That odd man, however, also seems to sight Lazarus. His eyes follow him, and after a moment, he claps his hands together in a prayer. A moment later, he chases after with lightning speed which Luka can usually only achieve for bare moments when using Thunder Thrust.
Luka can only wonder if the two were somehow connected, but soon after he tells Alice about Lazarus, she drags him off to a hotel to rest, given how worked up he got.
Soon after, she gave him another reason to be really worked up.
Quick, Luka and Noah are in the same room! Get them to speak to one another- aaand it's gone.
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